dishes and spices with impunity; or Aristolenus, who longed for the throat of a crane, that he might prolong the bliss of deglutition. Tacitus speaks of a particular dish, called the shield of Minerva, the ingredients of which cost sixty talents ($72,000), and which the ineffable Vitellius had at different times prepared at that price—an insanity which we may hesitate to believe; but less than a century ago the city of London treated George III. to a banquet of three hundred and fourteen "courses," at an expense of twenty-six thousand pounds sterling.
Opposite the Palais Royal, along the Chaussée d'Antin and on the Rue Rivoli, Paris, there are restaurants where a moderate fortune may be spent in a single week, and the déjeuners-dinatoires of the Frères Provençaux are not forgotten where some piquant made dishes would cost more than a year's board in the Faubourg St.-Germain.
"They offered me an omellette at Fitchburg," says Henry Thoreau, "an omellette with fried bacon, at forty-five cents. Not having fortyfive cents to spare for an indigestion, I bought some bread and butter, which, together with the apples I had, made me a fine dinner. We do need some fat and farinaceous substance once a day, but, if one can get it out of a butter sandwich and ten cents, he commits a crime against national economy and against himself if he wastes the fourfold price on an omellette and fried bacon. And why commit a further waste by calling the thing an o-mel-lette? Are not the two syllables of a pancake sufficient?"
Whatever may have been the intrinsic value of that pancake, it would certainly be worth forty-five cents to know what Henry Thoreau would have said about the following menu of a "little lunch," given at the Langham Hotel (London) to the members of the Dietary Reform Club (society for the introduction of horse-flesh):
Potages—Consommé de cheval. Purée de destrier. Amontillado.
Poissons—Saumon à la sause arabe. Filets de soles à l'huile hippophagique. Vin du Rhin.
Hors d’œuvres—Terrines de foie maigre chevalines. Saucissons de cheval aux pistaches syriaques. Xèrès.
Releves—Filet de Pégase roti aux pommes de terre à la crême. Dinde aux châtaignes. Aloyau de cheval farci à la centaure et aux choux de Bruxelles. Culotte de cheval braisée aux chevaux de frise. Champagne sec.
Entrées—Petits pâtés à la moëlle-Bucéphale. Kromeskys à la gladiateur. Poulets garnis à l’hippogriffe. Langues de cheval àla troyenne. Château perayne.
SECOND SERVICE.
Rôts—Canards sauvages. Pluviers. Mayonnaises de homard à l'huile de Rossinante. Petits pois à la française, choux-fleurs au parmesan. Volney.
Entremets—Gelée de pieds de cheval au marasquin. Zéphirs sautés à l'huile chevaleresque. Gâteau vétérinaire á la Ducroix. Feuillantines aux pommes des Hespérides.-Saint-Peray.
Glaces—Crême aux truffes. Sorbets contre-préjugés. Liqueurs.
Dessert—Vins fins de Bordeaux. Madère. Café.
Buffet—Marmalade au kirsch, gâteau d'ltalie au fromage de Chester, etc., etc.